Wouldn’t it be nice if your friendly pharmacist is able to tailor your treatment plan or assist with your health concerns?

A pharmacist’s main objective is to educate the public on taking charge of their health. Pharmacist from Marina Pharmacy in East Malaysia, Sim Lee Ping, shares her thoughts.

Sim Lee Ping: I wish they know more about signs and symptoms of common health related issues such as:

• Stroke 
• Diabetes 
• Thyroid 
• Dermatitis 
• Allergies 
• Dengue and more.

I think through public health education, we may equip the society with some knowledge of managing their own health and know when they should get medical attention.

Lee Ping: One common misunderstanding is that community pharmacists are similar to doctors, which is untrue. This is because most pharmacy syllabus in universities are lacking sufficient diagnostic training like doctors.

However, we are trained towards treatment related, pharmacokinetic (the study of the movement of drugs within the body), pharmacodynamic (the study of what drugs do to the body), complementary medicines and lifestyle supports. Hence, doctors and community pharmacists should work together as a team for the best health outcomes of the patients.

On the other hand, some people may think community pharmacists have limited health or drug-related knowledge and they often see us like a shopkeeper. They come here just to buy supplements and to get cheaper medicines. This is also wrong as community pharmacists in fact can make their life easier by helping them choose the right alternative medicines (supplements) with appropriate dosage. Furthermore, we may play a role in health screening of the local community. For example, we perform health screening procedures such as:

• Blood pressure 
• Glucose level 
• Cholesterol testing 
• Monitoring customers’ medicine usage. Shall there be any concerns, we may directly refer them back to their doctors or hospital.

Lee Ping: A well trained community pharmacist may be able to provide health related knowledge to their patients. This includes counselling on the danger of self medicating, smoking, alcohol abuse, simple skin management, weight management and more. We’re also capable of helping patients manage their medications to avoid ‘drug- drug’ or ‘drug- food’ interactions and polypharmacy.

Plus, we can provide Webster packs (disposable medication packs) or dosette packs services(small sealable compartments, which hold tablets from its original packing) to those who tend to forget taking their regular medicines.

Pharmacists also assist the community to make better decisions when it comes to the medication and supplements that suit them well. Community Pharmacist from Sabah and President of the Sabah Pharmaceutical Society, Jemima Ho shares what she wishes you would know about community pharmacists!

Jemima Ho: Health is wealth and it must be promoted and maintained. We have to take care of our bodies and only then will we be able to live a healthier life. Life isn’t about how long we live, instead how healthy we are.

Every supplement bought is an investment with returns instead of an expenditure.

Jemima: Generally, the community thinks that pharmacists only sell medicines and they think that we will not know how to give advice on the right way to manage health. Apart from that, it is often misunderstood that community pharmacists are not a part of the healthcare system. Which is one of the reasons why they prefer to listen to orders given by their healthcare professionals.

Jemima: Well, apart from dispensing medicines, there are other important tasks that pharmacists can do, such as:

• Provide lifestyle advice on how to deal with high blood pressure, cholesterol, high blood sugar and uric acid. 
• We’re also trained on a smoking cessation programme and do follow-ups to ensure that people who intend to stop smoking are on track. 
• Be advocates for Covid-19 vaccines and provide more confidence to the public to get vaccinated.

Above are a few common underlying problems many would experience when there’s calculus growing, therefore blocking the salivary flow

A pharmacist, from Clinical Pharmacist Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah, Kuala Terengganu, Sharifah Nadia binti Syed Mohammad Salleh wishes that everyone understands the importance of good health and how being healthy can make our lives whole again. Here’s her thought on the matter at hand:

Sharifah Nadia binti Syed Mohammad Salleh: I wish that everyone would understand that good health is the most important thing in the world. Plus, prevention of disease, although easier said than done, is so much better than treating or managing a disease.

Just like a car, the whole body system changes when you’re diagnosed with a disease and treatment does not only cover one organ, but your whole system. As we all know, treatment of or repairing a car is way more expensive than having good maintenance, although we can’t really see the effect in the short term.

However, unlike cars, we do not have the option of changing our body when it’s giving up on us. It would be wonderful if patients know their rights in engaging with all healthcare professionals for the best health care management. For example, asking for their rights to receive their prescription tickets and where they can get their prescriptions filled. They should also use their rights to have their options of treatment explained thoroughly.

Nadia: Oh there are so many (laughs), but the most hurtful ones are that we are just taking money out of customer’s pockets by selling them unnecessary supplements or medicines just to make the business grow or we are unregistered doctors or wannabes.

Pharmacists and doctors are two separate healthcare professionals and we’re legally allowed to dispense medications correctly as well as provide recommendations and counselling to manage patients’ health.

Apart from that, we also have a good relationship with other healthcare professionals to ensure that patients receive appropriate treatments. However, we’re all humans who need to make a living, so we really hope that minimal charges for ensuring that our medications are kept in a good and safe to be dispensed is not too much to ask.

Nadia: Apart from dispensing medicines, we provide counselling on medicine related issues, proper way to store medicine and supplements at home and the possible side effects on each drug you take.

We are also advocates for prevention of preventable diseases and promoting healthy lifestyle and good mental health.